In the never-ending quest for optimal use of scarce leisure time, an increasing number of people are turning to water craft for cruising, fishing, exploring, towing water skiers, and other purposes. One common thread between maritime regulations which apply to commercial and leisure activities is the paramount importance given to considerations which compensate for inattention. Such regulations and recommended operating practices have a common purpose: to make boating safer.
Over the years, those going down to the sea in ships include not only the old salt but also those whose experience in maritime practices is lacking. Regardless of experience level, alcohol consumption, if present, may affect the judgment of all boat operators. Ideally, water craft systems should be designed with human factors in mind so that safe operating practices are less dependent on such human factors. One way to achieve this goal is to provide systems which are operable in spite of human error.
One consideration which confronts the operators and passengers of motor-driven vessels is the accumulation of noxious gasses in an engine compartment when the vessel is at rest or is travelling slowly below wake speed, which the vessel is often required to do when navigating through inland waters. At higher speeds, air intake scoops mounted on the outside of the hull ingest ram air into and through the engine compartment, thereby purging the compartment of noxious vapors. When the boat is at rest or idling slowly for long periods, operating practices require the operator to activate a manual blower switch in order to expel unwanted gasses from the engine compartment.
Following engine start-up checklists, the boat operator may have little difficulty in remembering to activate a manual blower motor switch for a period of time before starting the engine Failure to follow such checklists, however, may result in the operator failing to turn on the manual blower motor before engine start. Difficulties linger, for example, when the distraction of picking up a fallen skier diverts the operator's attention from the need to expel noxious gasses from the engine compartment. During the time interval when he doubles back, slows down, and drifts in the water while the skier remounts his skis, the operator's attention is focused outside the boat on the skier. The operator's attention is not directed inside the boat, nor on a potential need to activate the manual blower motor switch. If this period of time is excessive, there may be an accumulation of noxious gasses which are not purged by the movement of air through the engine compartment, or by a deactivated blower motor.
For these reasons, it would be desirable to have a device which automatically operates a bilge blower motor in response to the speed of the water craft, so that the blower motor is operated whenever the water craft is at rest or its speed is below a pre-determined value, regardless of the setting of the manual blower switch. If the operator failed to activate the blower switch manually, the device would automatically activate the blower.
Additionally, such a device would have the attribute of reducing the number of things which the boat operator needs to remember to do, and would have the beneficial affect of decreasing his work load in operating the boat safely.
Furthermore, it would be extremely useful to be able to purchase such a device relatively inexpensively, install it readily, and to be able to utilize a device which would readily be compatible with most systems found in vessels currently in use.